Heard Around Campus

“Coach Mac was an incredible man who taught me about the importance of faith, family and being a good husband, father and grandfather.”

– CU Boulder Athletic Director  on Jan.10, 2025. Coach Mac was among the most successful head coaches in all sports in CU Boulder’s 135-year athletic history. 

Incarcerated at Risk in Climate Disasters

U.S. prisons are unprepared to safeguard the incarcerated from extreme heat, floods and other climate-related threats, according to a CU study with accounts from nearly three dozen formerly incarcerated people. Researchers found that vulnerabilities in infrastructure, insufficient emergency protocols and lack of oversight leave inmates at heightened risk during disasters. The team hopes their study will inspire more research around climate change adaptation, mitigation and prevention while also considering the voices of incarcerated people.

CU Buys Shuttered Louisville Movie Theater

CU Boulder that housed the Regal Cinebarre movie theater, which closed last May. The site, purchased for $10 million, is intended for a mixed-use, transit-oriented development that includes university housing. The property is seven miles from campus.

New Quantum Facility in Boulder

CU Boulder is spearheading and providing leadership and resources to a new 13,000-square-foot quantum facility in east Boulder. The effort is in partnership with , and , a tech hub with a coalition of 120 organizations. The facility will include collaborative office space for early-stage quantum companies and state-of-the-art scientific equipment. 

Digits: Europa Instrument 

The Surface Dust Analyzer, designed and built by the CU Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics team, launched to Jupiter’s Europa moon aboardspacecraft to collect data that may determine whether the moon has conditions that could support life.

6

Years to get to Europa

35 pounds

Weight of CU apparatus

$53 million

Instrument’s cost

16 miles

How close Europa Clipper will be to the moon’s surface

~1.9B

Number of miles Europa Clipper will travel across the solar system 

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What do you want people to understand about sustainability?

Sustainability is the most pressing issue facing humankind in the 21st century. We need to ensure that human life continues on the planet in a manner that gives everyone the opportunity for a life worth living. There is a misconception that sustainability is a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) issue — that it’s a problem for scientists and engineers to solve. But sustainability is a human challenge. Our failure or success will affect each of us, and we must work together across disciplines to implement solutions.

CU Boulder will soon welcome its first vice chancellor for sustainability. How will this position influence future campus efforts?

I am thrilled that we’ve hired Andrew Mayock, chief sustainability officer for the federal government since 2021, as our inaugural vice chancellor for sustainability. I’ve charged Andrew with advancing CU Boulder’s reputation for bringing climate solutions to life. As the “face of sustainability” for our campus, he will take an inclusive and interdisciplinary approach to build on our legacy and make CU Boulder a household name for sustainability impact across Colorado, the United States and around the globe. I know he is eager to get started!

How can alumni and friends of CU Boulder get involved in sustainability efforts? 

We’re always looking for partners who are willing to share their insights, time and financial support to advance CU Boulder’s vision and support our incredible sustainability-focused research and teaching. You also can be an ambassador for CU Boulder in your own communities — tell your friends, neighbors and prospective students about what we’re doing in sustainability! Explore how you can minimize your carbon footprint and address issues of concern in your own cities. If you are an employer, you can also engage with CU Boulder on implementing climate action strategies in your company or workplace.

In five or 10 years, what evidence will show that CU Boulder has advanced in sustainability?

As a campus, we will pursue some “quick wins,” while also working on priorities that take more time and effort. I want to see CU Boulder lead the charge in making Colorado the most sustainable state in the nation. In the coming years, we’ll aim to advance both climate education and the implementation of solutions across the United States and beyond, transforming the way higher education drives sustainability.

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Photo by Glenn Asakawa

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The Conference on World Affairs (CWA) celebrated its 75th anniversary with a focus on climate change this April 12–14. Panelists from all over the world held discussions within topics ranging from urban planning and food production to the Colorado River crisis. Speakers included Rose Marcario, former CEO of Patagonia, and Jim Lochhead, CEO and manager of Denver Water. �������� 4,000 registrants attended the three-day conference either in person or virtually.  

Award-winning environmental photographer and filmmaker James Balog (Geog’77) served as keynote speaker. He shared a photo, pictured, that he and CIRES physicist Patrick Cullis took at 76,000 feet using a camera attached to a weather balloon in 2017. 

“It’s looking down on Denver in the bottom part of the photo, out through the atmosphere and into the blackness of space,” he said. “It was our little photo art performance piece to see, feel and experience how thin the atmosphere is.”

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Photo by Glen Asakawa

Related Articles

In December 2022, CU Boulder is hosting the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit in partnership with U.N. Human Rights. The summit is bringing together experts, youth activists, global leaders and citizens — like you — to discuss the impacts climate change has on human rights. In this issue, we’re highlighting CU research that examines some of these impacts, which hit vulnerable communities and populations more directly. After reading these stories, I hope you’ll join us online at the summit. 

We’ve also included stories to delight and inspire: from goat yoga at the CU Rec Center to Buffs leading as local politicians and CU’s first Pro Football Hall of Famer. And, after two years of remote and hybrid operations, campus was bursting with life for the 2022 commencement, which celebrated over 9,000 Forever Buffs from the classes of ’22, ’21, ’20 — and even ’68! 

CU Boulder is rich with stories to celebrate; we’re honored to print these — and welcome your ideas for more.

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Big Green 

Imagine our delight at seeing the flowers that my wife, Robin Cantor (Fren’87), and I left at the base of the tree that we have called “Big Green” for over 30 years. We loved that tree, and were sad to see it go. Knowing that it was a Methuselah of its kind and mother to young clones on campus will always be comforting. Kudos to [forestry supervisor] Vince Aquino and his team for taking such good care of our friend all those years.

Evan Cantor (�ѷ����’93)
Boulder 

Humans as the Problem 

I always look forward to receiving my Coloradan alumni magazine. I was particularly interested in the article regarding d’Andre Willis, CU Boulder’s architect. Boulder’s campus is certainly an architectural jewel. 

In this article, Willis comments on the “negative impacts that buildings have made to climate change.” What we must realize is that buildings don’t use energy … people do! Until such time as we, the humans who inhabit these structures, accept a wider range of indoor temperatures, operable windows, lower electric illumination levels and a reduced use of electronics (remember blackboards — now replaced by electronic white boards) we are ignoring the real problem … us.

Kirk Davis (�������󷡲Բ���’72)
Portland, Oregon

CU’s Natural History Museum

“Growing a Museum” on page 12 [Spring 2022] was of personal interest! My mother, Almira Kupka, married Ernst Kemper in Boulder on July 27, 1926, and they rented a place at 750 12th Street while she attended classes, and Ernst pursued a business featuring car ride tours that approached the summits of Pikes Peak and Mount Evans. Almira told me that Hugo Rodeck (BioChem’28; MA’29) knew her family.

During the summer of 1962, my father, my wife, Tricia, and I traveled near Limon, Colorado, to explore a steep-walled arroyo and look for Stone Age tools. Tricia saw a horn projecting from the wall above our heads. The horn was attached to a bison skull buried upside down very close to the eroded clay wall.

The skull was removed and became a valuable part of my father’s collection of artifacts. He died in 1966, and the collection became mine. In 1968 I contacted Hugo to find out if the Henderson Museum would accept the skull as a donation. Hugo drove to Lakewood and took it from our basement. The skull was examined and judged to be a “keeper” because the sinus structure was complete. I assume the skull is still somewhere in the Henderson Building.

Ernst Anton Kemper (���𳾷��Բ���’59)&�Բ�����;
Lakewood, Colorado 

Radcliffe Distinction 

Thanks for the fine end piece on Joyce Lebra’s life and work. I wish I had known her while studying at CU. 

Just a minor correction — she could not have received a degree from the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. 

Prior to 1963, women studying at Harvard received their degrees from Radcliffe College; their deans were from Radcliffe while all their professors were from Harvard. 

From 1964 through 1977 the women were still admitted by Radcliffe, taught by Harvard and received diplomas from both Harvard and Radcliffe. 

In 1977 Radcliffe was merged into Harvard. Radcliffe’s physical assets eventually became the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. It is also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. 

Terry Vogt (�ѵ���’75)
San Francisco

Thanks, CU 

Great issue for spring. As I was reading, I thought, “I’m really glad I went to CU.” My decision to attend was more a matter of serendipity than rational decision. My parents thought I was too young to go out of state, so I simply went with the largest college around. Now I see how much I benefited from the diversity, the emphasis on excellence and the intellectual atmosphere there. The issue held numerous examples of these qualities. So I’m finally saying, “Thanks, CU.”

Bonnie Fine McCune (�ʲ��⳦��’66)
Denver 

CU Baseball 

Bryan Karlan (RealEst’92) — No. 6 — sent in this 1985 baseball team photo. The baseball team had been cut from CU’s athletic budget, he wrote, and were sponsored by the Student Union. They played several Big 8 universities as well as other schools like the Air Force Academy. “We were a pretty motley crew,” he said.

Tulagi Nights 

I enjoyed seeing The Sink and Tulagi signs in your photos. I was manager of Tulagi several years in the mid-1960s. We filled the dance floor weekend nights with dancers to our bands’ music. Monday nights we did nickel beer for an hour, and we would have a line from the front tap at the bar all the way across the dance floor to the bandstand of folks lining up to get their 5-cent beer. At the time, we were the largest-volume draft beer outlet for Coors. 

Dave Edstrom (�پ����ٳ���’67)
Roanoke, Texas

�´Ƿ�…

I loved this past Coloradan. Wow … it was an incredible overall piece, but specifically, the Marshall Fire story was incredibly honoring of the magnitude of disaster and impact to our community. I read it from cover to cover.

Leah Murphy 
Broomfield, Colorado

Life as the Colorado Daily Photo Editor 

I was the photo editor for the Colorado Daily during some of my years at CU in the early 1970s.   I send you a few memories to consider for the Coloradan.  

While I was on staff, the offices were in the UMC and the publication darkroom was on the floor below. The photography job worked out well for me because I could work the assignments around classes and I could study in the darkroom while I waited for film to develop and prints to dry. The photo deadline was usually around 10 p.m.

To increase income, I asked to add advertising sales to my job as the commissions were good. I covered parts of Boulder that did not have representation at the time, that is, further away from the campus. It was an easy sell for me as I told prospective clients that about 25% of the Boulder workforce (at the time) were employed by CU and picked up the paper. 

Between the two jobs, plus selling cameras part-time at Jones Drug and Camera on The Hill and some periodic cooking jobs at local restaurants and sub shops, I was able to get through the first four years without debt paying out-of-state tuition. Back then, it could be done. 

Glen Freiberg (EPOBio’74; MA’76)
Rancho Santa Fe, California

Correction 

In the Spring 2022 issue of the Coloradan, we misspelled illustrator Brian Rea’s name in the “7 Ways Work Will Change Forever” feature. We regret the error.

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Photos by Glenn Asakawa (cottonwood); Ernst Kemper (skull); courtesy Glen Freiberg (concert); Bryan Karlan (baseball); Coloradan archives (The Sink) 

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When we talk about climate change, it’s easy to get caught up in the numbers. Degrees of warming. Tons of carbon. Feet of sea level rise.

It’s not that these measures aren’t important — they certainly are.

But the details that illuminate the climate change problem are the very details that obscure it and make it feel insurmountable.

I believe what’s easier to visualize — and what leaves me more optimistic — is how humankind is envisioning solutions to climate change that benefit human life.

As poor air quality in Nepal began contributing to more deaths, Prateek Shrestha (MMechEngr’15; PhD’18) designed an air-monitoring drone to indicate when conditions are best to leave home.

When conflicts emerged between development and conservation in the forests of Brazil, CU Boulder students journeyed there to learn how to work at the intersection of science and policy.

Climate change directly impacts humanity. That’s why I’m proud to co-host the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights this December, with opportunities to participate on campus or online.

This summit seeks to make the problem tangible and visceral by focusing on how it impacts human rights and what we can do about it. It will highlight how this multifaceted challenge is affecting the lives and livelihoods of individuals around the globe, particularly marginalized peoples and communities.

Through keynotes, panels and other events, the summit will focus on solutions and encourage participants to commit to solving this problem for all of humanity by taking action.

CU Boulder’s long history of research, scholarship and innovation around climate change and sustainability, across the physical and social sciences, engineering, law, business, communication, athletics and more, ensures that our university community is prepared to lead, innovate and create impact in this important area. 

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and former U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights — and our first announced summit keynote speaker — put it eloquently in remarks several years ago before the London School of Economics: “The task of protecting future generations must start with ensuring fairness and equality in the current one.

“We will not succeed in fighting climate change and securing a safer world for future generations without first ensuring that the dignity and rights of all people alive today are respected and protected.” 

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Photo courtesy Peter Newton

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